The Mech Touch

The vast majority of them never managed to move past the Novice and Apprentice stage. Competition was high and the difficulty of breaking through to Journeyman halted many ambitious mech designers.

As their youthful energies sputtered out after years and decades of marginal progress, they usually transitioned into lesser engineering careers.

Those that managed to pass all of the hurdles and become Journeymen were quite few.

Even less of this group managed to overcome the difficult hurdle that prevented them from realizing their design philosophy.

Of the exalted Masters that succeeded in fulfilling their ambitions, only an exceedingly tiny proportion of them managed to pass through whatever hurdle lay beyond.

Every single Master Mech Designer was either extremely talented, capable, lucky, hard-working or a combination of these traits. None of them were incompetent fools who were incapable of solving complex problems.

Yet despite all of their design and research prowess, only a scant amount of Masters successfully advanced once again.

There were so few Star Designers in human society that they were outliers rather than the norm!

Each of them had overcome immensely difficult challenges in order to surpass the limits that hindered most humans from going any further.

Their greatness was so immense that Ves generated all kinds of ideas about what Star Designers were like.

He had met numerous Master Mech Designers in person. Each of them still possessed human forms but their minds and spiritualities were like burning suns. They were so spiritually potent and energetic that Ves would probably light himself on fire if he came too close!

Since Masters were already so powerful from a spiritual perspective, Ves imagined that Star Designers would definitely be so much greater.

It wouldn't be a stretch to equate them as gods given all of the wonders they could design!

Yet as Ves came face to face with the first Star Designer in his life, he became decidedly underwhelmed.

Was this it? Ves could hardly sense any obvious signs of power, spiritual or otherwise. The Polymath, despite her monstrous reputation and list of feats, looked like an ordinary middle-aged woman.

She looked much less impressive than in any of her public appearances. Her simpler outfit along with her unassuming demeanor made her look like a boring librarian instead of the smartest and most intelligent mech designer in human space!

For a moment, Ves doubted his own judgment. A Star Designer couldn't be this average, right? Did the MTA engage in another form of deception? Was he meeting with a clone or a remote puppet of the Polymath?

No. These were stupid notions.

Ves recalled that she wasn't supposed to be here. Perhaps her underwhelming guise was another form of security. People with average appearances would never cause anyone to think they were Star Designers!

Besides, there were other signs that reinforced his impressions that he was talking to the real deal.

First, his intuition screamed in alarm. The woman sitting on the other side of the plain white table was both extremely powerful and posed a massive threat to his safety!

Second, just because she did not generate any significant spiritual fluctuations did not mean she was ordinary.

He increasingly believed that it was a function of her extremely powerful capabilities. Power alone was not scary. What truly made it fearsome was when its wielder exerted total control over it. The Polymath was like a blank sheet to his passive senses. He could not pick up any details of the power she contained in her body.

For now, it was best to assume that the Polymath had truly appeared in the flesh. To think otherwise would no doubt end poorly for him. Jovy had continually reminded him to be respectful.

As Ves slowly managed to sort out his racing thoughts, the Polymath seemed content to study him in turn.

Her deep blue eyes didn't appear to be augmented, but he instinctively felt that her gaze pierced straight through his body.

As he humbly and respectfully looked up at her face, which was framed with black hair in a pixie cut, he briefly wondered what she did to make her skin so young and smooth despite being over a hundred years old.

The Polymath finally resumed the conversation.

"Before we proceed any further, I will be performing an examination on your person."

"I… take it that this is not a regular scan." Ves said.

He was under no illusion that the MTA respected his privacy. His body and all of the articles on his body were probably scanned a trillion times with thousands of different sensors.

Why would the Polymath go out of the way to notify him about another examination?

"This particular examination is vastly more invasive than our more ordinary measures. You will feel great discomfort which cannot be avoided. As a fellow human and mech designer, you deserve the courtesy of a warning."

Despite her friendly words, there was no doubt in his mind that she would never take ‘no' for an answer.

Ves bent his head. "Please proceed."

The Polymath did not do anything right away. Instead, she sat as she did something to increase the density of the surrounding mist. Whatever she was doing truly had to be kept a secret from others.

Once she was satisfied with these measures, she looked down at one of her hands.

The silver ring that adorned her finger automatically slid out and floated above the middle of the table.

Though the ring looked as plain as the rest of the Polymath, Ves instincts completely went bonkers when he noticed its existence.

This was not a normal silver ring!

"The examination will commence in three, two, one…"

The ring suddenly exploded in power as an unidentifiable form of energy surged out of its tiny shape!

The energy did not spread out. Instead, it poured straight into Ves' body, completely enveloping his entire body, mind and Spirituality in an instant!

"Ahhh!"

Though Ves had experienced worse forms of pain, it was not that easy for him to endure this powerful sensation!

The foreign energy that was coursing through body was powerful and unlike anything he had ever experienced!

Strangely enough, the energy did not clash with the Worclaw energy and spiritual energy that he possessed. It was as if the foreign energy existed in a different phase from the rest.

Even so, the potency of it was so high that his body and mind unavoidably became scorched by the faint proximity!

Dozens of seconds passed by as the energy bounced inside his body like waves trapped in a pool.

This was the most invasive ‘scan' that he had ever gone through! The energy waves were so powerful and penetrating that he felt it could dig up even the tiniest particle that was out of place!

Yet as Ves gradually adjusted to the scouring sensations, he slowly started to pick up a few crucial details.

The energy that was coursing through his body may be unfamiliar, but it possessed a faint signature that made him feel as if he had encountered it before.

He honestly couldn't recall if he had ever come in touch with this signature, but as he opened his eyes and stared at the glowing ring that was responsible for his agony, his intuition suddenly connected the dots.

Shock coursed through his mind!

If not for the fact that the unknown energy was already causing a lot of distress to his body, he would have grown worried about giving away his reaction.

Even so, it was still difficult for him to suppress and keep his roiling emotions from fluctuating any further.

How could he possibly remain in control of himself when he deduced the true nature of the silver ring?

Though he didn't have any solid proof, his intuition was so certain about his judgment that it completely left out the possibility that he was wrong.

If his guess was right… then the ring was actually a fragment of the Metal Scroll!

Ves did not dare to direct his eyes towards the Polymath at all. Once he recognized that he came face to face with a different fragment of the mythical Metal Scroll, then so much of the Polymath's amazing ascent to power made sense.

Master in less than 50 years.

Star Designer in less than 100 years.

This was an inhuman rate of progress for even the most talented mech designers in existence!

There was no way that the Polymath could have achieved this extreme rate without a powerful advantage!

Though many people puzzled why the Polymath broke the mold, it made complete sense to Ves.

Whether her version of Metal Scroll adopted the guise of Mech Designer System or not, there was no doubt in his mind that she had enlisted its aid in accelerating her progression!

The Polymath wasn't just a random Star Designer to him anymore. If his assumptions were truly right, then she was actually a Holy Daughter!

This was an enormous piece of news that could definitely rupture human society if exposed!

Did the MTA as a whole know about her possession of the Metal Scroll?

If not, then what about the Survivalists?

Was the Five Scrolls Compact aware that a fragment of one of their most holiest relics was in the hands of one of their archenemies?

It shouldn't be. The cultists would have stormed the gates in order to retrieve a piece of the Sacred Scroll!

Plenty more theories formed in his mind, though he tried his best to ignore the ridiculous possibilities.

In one moment, he suspected that the Polymath was a high-level infiltrator whose true loyalty lay in the Compact.

In another moment, he figured that the Polymath secretly hailed from another organization that was not with the MTA, CFA or Compact.

He had no proof of any of these assertions. Given the extremely delicate nature of this meeting, Ves thought it best to put them aside and focus on surviving this day first!

This was because he developed another suspicion why the Polymath was using her ring to scan his body.

He feared that the Polymath had taken a good look at his record and found a few parallels to her own accelerated progress. Ves had many other red flags in his highly unusual and eventful career that someone as smart as a Star Designer would never be able to miss!

It would have been reasonable for her to suspect that Ves Larkinson may actually possess another lost fragment of the Metal Scroll.

Was this the principal reason why a vaunted Star Designer absconded from her extremely important duties and secretly traveled all the way to the Davute System to meet with a mere Journeyman Mech Designer?

This was the only explanation that made sense!

Unfortunately for the youngest and most talented Star Designer in existence, the invasive scanning probably wasn't returning the results she anticipated.

Now that he figured all of this out, Ves deeply suspected that the Polymath was looking for his piece of the Metal Scroll.

The same Mech Designer System that was currently missing in action for some time.

Ever since Ves completed one of his Supply Missions by supplying the System with Timpala Steel, it told him that it would undergo an upgrade.

Then, it fell silent, thereby depriving him of its many benefits.

Though this was quite a frustrating condition, right now he was extremely grateful that the System had made itself scarce at the moment!

Whether it had temporarily gone to another place or became so inactive that its presence became undetectable, he was certain that the mystical ring failed to find its lost brother!

Though this denied Ves the opportunity to recognize the Polymath as kin, it also prevented a potentially fatal outcome for himself!

It was not difficult to think what might happen if the Star Designer fulfilled her current objective.

She would have ripped the Metal Designer System out from Ves straight away before attempting to merge it with ‘her' fragment of the Metal Scroll.

After that, she would immediately wipe Ves out of existence straight away because he formed a liability to the secret of what she possessed.

If she was more humane or merciful than that, then she might opt to ‘invite' him to work for the MTA on a permanent basis.

Perhaps she might dress her compulsion up as an honor, but Ves would never be able to get out of her thumb for the rest of life if that was the case!

This was what Ves would have done if he was in her shoes. This was also why he was immensely relieved about the current circumstances.

Ves was truly not a Holy Son at the moment!

He was unable to call upon the System and even lost the System sight that allowed him to call up the stats of certain objects and people.

Hopefully, the System's dormancy also flushed his body of the unique biological markers that were only present in Holy Sons and Daughters.

Finally, the invasive scanning wound down. The energies left his strained body while the ring no longer radiated power.

The silver jewel slowly floated back to the Polymath's feminine hand and slipped back onto her finger like nothing happened.

As Ves made sure to calm himself, he finally dared to glimpse at her face.

Though the Polymath did not exhibit any emotional fluctuations, he couldn't help but get the sense that was disappointed. Her control over her emotions was extremely good, but she was so powerful that particularly powerful mood changes were nonetheless capable of bleeding through her mental barrier.

She quickly controlled herself though. In truth, Ves would have missed this little nuance if he wasn't already good at sensing people's emotions.

"Our scans have found no issue." The Polymath said as if she had just used an ordinary multiscanner on him. "We may proceed with our discussion."

Ves responded with a brittle smile. "I'm all ears."